Don’t expect fresh policies in Labor’s new small business strategy
Labor has unveiled the National Small Business Strategy, a 62-page document that is less of a policy proposal and more of a policy precursor.
In the lead-up to a federal election and an early budget, you might expect the Labor government to share new policy proposals for small business.
Instead, Labor has unveiled the National Small Business Strategy, a 62-page document that is less of a policy proposal and more of a policy precursor.
Business operators struggling through harsh economic conditions might wish for more explicit spending commitments today.
But the document promises more effective small business policies in the future.
The strategy, released Monday, is the result of a June 2024 meeting of federal, state, and territory small business ministers.
They discussed a fact obvious to most small business operators: even if it exists, finding the right government support is difficult and confusing.
The strategy uses a bit of “show, don’t tell” to get this point across.
One diagram, showing where Australian businesses can access advice and support, looks more like an overgrown Petri dish than a cohesive flowchart.
Consider the path of a small business in dispute with an interstate supplier.
Do they contact the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman? Their own small business commissioner? Or the commissioner working interstate?
To cut down on confusion, the new strategy “outlines how jurisdictions will work together to better support small businesses across our nation”.
It does not call for consolidation or culling.
Instead, the strategy is a “principles-based document that provides a framework” for more efficient coordination between jurisdictions.
The goal: ensuring new policies, when they arrive, are applicable and easy to understand at all levels.
“Vast and complex” ecosystem
So, a policy proposal it is not, even as small businesses struggling through a cost of living crisis call out for targeted support.
Reading between the lines, though, the strategy justifies its approach.
Small businesses operate in a “vast and complex” ecosystem, it says, insinuating there is no panacea capable of assisting all 2.6 million small businesses across the country.
And as long as small businesses are confused about the help available and how to access it, the effectiveness of new spending commitments will be limited.
The strategy also benefits from its bipartisan appeal.
It has buy-in from small business ministers in Labor and Coalition state governments, giving it a bit more staying in power than specific policy proposals.
In a statement, Minister for Small Business Julie Collins called the strategy “a collective vision for the small business sector and our shared commitment across tiers of government to work together”.
It suggests focusing on efficiency and reducing overlap will also cut red tape, a key concern for lawmakers of all stripes, to say nothing of small businesses, and their representatives.
And with the budget bottom line a key concern for both sides of the aisle, the strategy also comes at a relatively low immediate cost to the taxpayer.
Strategy sits against hard policy proposals
Few would argue that holistic reform is a bad thing, but reducing overlap and clarifying bureaucratic boundaries takes time.
In the short term, the strategy, published under the federal Labor government, will compete against flashier policies from the federal Opposition: consider the $20,000 lunch write-off, a plan that can be clearly understood, even if its cost has not been made public.
Similarly, the proposal to gradually and collaboratively realign business support services lacks the flashbang clarity of the Coalition’s plan to cut public sector jobs in the name of efficiency and reducing “wasteful spending”.
Ultimately, the strategy is still beholden to federal and state-level funding decisions, too, which dictate the levels of support offered by agencies like the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman or the Victorian Small Business Commissioner.
The way small businesses access government support services does need to change.
SmartCompany often hears from business owners who find the right support only after calling the ‘wrong’ agency first, or who discover the right office through word-of-mouth — which only goes so far.
And the right support can be life-changing, whether it is free tax clinics helping entrepreneurs stay on top of their affairs, or mental health helplines with deep knowledge of small business hardship.
Simplifying how Australian jurisdictions offer support is a worthy endeavour, and the National Small Business Strategy is a good-faith attempt to fix a complex and confusing system.
But as small businesses struggle under today’s economic conditions, it will be understandable if they want more immediate policy proposals in the lead-up to the budget and the next federal election.
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